Who Am I?
I live in the suburbs with a husband, a kid, and two wiener dogs.
I am a stay-at-home; in addition to my own business, I cannot sit still and am always making/doing things. This is my repository for all the extra projects, advice, and DIYs I embark upon, with varying success.
Caveats:
• I did not take high school chemistry
• I like math, but am not good at it
• I do what I call "grocery store math" where you do quick figuring for the best deal
• If you take issue with how I figured something out, please! Start a NICE discussion. I want to learn, and I want others to learn. Calling me or anyone else an idiot doesn't advance anything.
• I'm human. I make mistakes. Do your own research. It's fun and you might learn something.
There's something really satisfying about hanging clothes out that have been washed with homemade laundry detergent. I haven't bought detergent for almost five years now; our clothes smell like nothing. A relative left a shirt here after staying the night, so I washed it with our clothes. The WHOLE load smelled like her laundry soap! I wondered it how may washes it would take to rinse her shirt clean. I like my clothes having no smell; it's made me more sensitive to using products with a scent, but whatever. I'd like to think it free my nose up to all better things.
I use my Kitchen Aid on a nigh-daily basis. It's probably the best wedding present we received all those years ago. That being said, I still understand how freakin' expensive the suckers are, so you want to take care of it!
Mine has an issue, I haven't nailed down the problem yet, but discovered some helpful information on the way. My machine starts out too fast when you turn it on. A very brief search indicated that perhaps something was wrong with the gears.
I was a little nervous; taking apart a $400+ machine is intimidating. You mess up, you have a $400+ pile of junk. However, Kitchen Aid design has changed very little from it's initial incarnation. The great thing about that is you don't have to worry about any computerized mumbo jumbo gunking up the proverbial works! (Ugh, can you imagine a computer-controlled mixer? What a pain!)
In any event, I found a FANTASTIC tutorial on disassembling, cleaning, and re-greasing your mixer.
http://artisanbreadbaking.com/ka_greasing/
Step-by photos (YESSSS) and simple explanations. I cleaned out and re-greased. This didn't solve my problem, as all the gears were fine, and there were no metal shavings in the old grease. Turning it on after re-greasing and cleaning, it DOES sound smoother. So hopefully I've helped to extend the life of the little guy a bit longer.
The quest for why it starts out so fast still continues...
UPDATE: I found an AMAZING PDF for complete Kitchen Aid servicing. Highly detailed photos and everything!
Before concluding, my baking soda shampoo saga, I will stress:
Correlation does not equal causation.
Meaning, just because I started 'A' at the same time 'B' happened, it does not necessarily mean that 'A' caused 'B'. (Though it can be a good place to start your investigation.)
I have been breastfeeding a kid for about 4 month without incident. Recently, within the past week, my nipples have been on fire. We're talking permanent, 24 hour indian burning titty twister that your sibling gave. I was crying whenever I had to feed the kid it hurt so bad. There was blood and he was biting and crying to get more while I cringed.
So I call the lactation specialist and my pediatrician. Kid doctor says it sounds like he's going through a growth spurt, that's probably leading to the fussiness. The lactation specialist says, "It sounds like you have a yeast infection on your nipples."
A small bell went off, I vaguely remember reading someone somewhere on the Internet complain about this.
She recommends applying gentian violet for the infection and fenugreek to up supply for the hungry kid. (Whether or not my milk supply was affected by the infection, I do not know. It seems to be a separate issue.)
I started treatment immediately, and the symptoms backed way off. However, I couldn't figure how I got such a bad infection. I shower often, keep myself clean and dry, how could this happen? The only major change I made recently was the baking soda shampoo! Information is difficult to find, but apparently baking soda can provide temporary relief for yeast infections, but can also AGGRAVATE them. Yikes.
All the bells start dinging for me: my nipples hurt, attempted intercourse with my spouse REALLY hurt, and I have noticed bad tinnitus pop up.
I shouldn't have to mention that my hair has been looking greasy and stringy during this whole treatment, so it's not like I was very fond of the treatment anyway.
Long story short, I'm headed off to the doc to try and get some internal treatment for this debacle! It's funny, a treatment that I've seen lauded on so many blogs as a fantastic, safe alternative to "chemical-laden shampoo" could be the cause of such a problem. Again, I will stress, I recognize I have little hard evidence to back me up; this is all just speculation. It can be difficult to find more than anecdotal evidence for "natural" treatments.
However, in the interest of completion, I will post a follow-up after quitting the treatment for A) how my hair is doing and B) to see if the infection has kicked.
So it's been almost two weeks of using baking soda as shampoo.
I must say, I was expecting more with all of the rave reviews of applying the stuff to one's hair. After a bit of looking, some folks say it can take from one to four weeks for your head to adjust to not being washed of its oils every day or so.
I'm willing to stick it out for four weeks to give my head an even month of this.
My thoughts thus far:
I have to wear my hair in a braid and a kerchief on my head to disguise the grease.
When loose, my hair looks stringy and oily.
Unless I let it dry in a towel for half an hour, it's really hard to brush out.
My hair tips are crunchy and not at all soft.
I started using a cup of vinegar to rinse, as some folks said it acts as a good conditioner. My hair is wavy/curly so it kinda needs it. My hair is SLIGHTLY softer, and the vinegar seems to cut some of the oils.
So yeah. If I had a job in an office, this would probably not work out so great. It REALLY wouldn't work out great if I was trying to do this in the summertime when Texas gets all hot and sweaty!
If I still had my short pixie cut, I'd probably skip all this and just use a smidge of Dr. Bronner's. We'll see!
To read about my cost analysis that got me into this experiment, click here.
Cheaper than canned! The rough equivalent of 10 cans of soup made fresh for under $5 for the whole batch. Bonus, the veggies don't have that mushy tin-can taste. Some are freezer-bound and some await going to work with Husband!
Ever use a butter bell (also known as a French butter dish or crock)? I've had one for several years now, and I love it! Storage without refrigeration is great.
The way it works is so:
pack butter into the "bell" shape
fill cylindrical part about 1/2 way with cool water
put bell into cylinder
enjoy soft butter
Butter stays fresh for about a month as long as you change the water out regularly. I have noticed that in Texas (where cheapskates like me don't turn on the A/C until I'm dying) that the butter will develop mold verrrry quickly when it's warm. However, in my house, I eat a steady diet of buttered toast all winter so my butter stays soft and spreadable.
I'm not a hardcore preparedness geek, but I have my interests. They mainly lie in the interesting crossover of Luddite fascination and money-saving.
I think most preppers are men. The women I see mainly deal with food. So, I rarely see what I consider to be one of the more important things to be prepared for in the event of disaster or lack of money.
A teacher wayyyyy back in high school asked us what items we would bring with us to survive on a desert island. I remember saying a knife, matches, and tampons. My friends laughed, but I asked them, "Well, what are YOU going to do? Use leaves?!" That shut them up; but nobody had thought of it. How many tampons would you have to bring? How long would you be on that island?
Years later, I came to the conclusion that you probably couldn't bring enough tampons to your desert island. I stumbled across several interesting ideas that would solve the problem of limited desert island tampon storage:
• moon cups
• re-usable sanitary napkins
I know, I know, you're thinking NAAAAAAAAASTYYYY! because that's what I first thought. I'd been using tampons and pads for years: they absorb all the mess and I can flush them away and never deal with it. GUH-ROSS.
Let's deal with each item individually.
We'll start with moon cups.
Moon/Diva/Soft/Menstrual Cups
Ok yeah. I think I first saw some kind of disposable cup in the grocery store and thought how disgusting that sounded. I mean, EW. You insert the cup during your period and it catches your menses, and then you take it out and aslkdjfalksfj yuck.
Years later, I ran across the idea on the Internet of reusable soft cups. This time, my mind is open because I am looking for relief from severe cramps. I may be able to overlook any ick. Many women claimed that after using a cup, cramp intensity went wayyyyy down. (I've read that the cause is whatever is used to bleach the cotton, but I can't actually find any evidence to back that claim up.)
So I'm desperate. I go down to the local Hippymart and drop the $30 on a DivaCup. I read all the instructions and make a go of it...
And I'll be damned. It took about three cycles for me to get really good at using it correctly, but I will never go back to tampons again. Whatever the reason, the cramps went back down to a manageable level, and I'm not having to fill the cabinet with ultra absorbancy tampons every month.
It struck me after using this gadget as to how great it is for survivalist situations:
• lasts for years if cared for properly
• takes up almost no room
• can be wiped clean between uses with a clean cloth
• to be sterilized needs to be boiled in water
• can be worn for 12 hours straight
• little to no leaking
Really the biggest hitch is making use you have a way to boil the damn thing. Other than that, I've used mine for several years with no issues. The cheapskate in me will point out how much money I'm saving on tampons and pantyliners. (No, I'm not going to do a cost analysis because women very WILDLY as to what they use and how much they use each month.)
Do you get over the gross factor? I did. Easily. As long as you keep your hands clean and think ahead in public bathrooms, it's not a big deal at all. I will warn you, if you do any type of research on this one, you WILL run into real nutters, who are way more comfortable at being one with Mother Earth than you are. Just smile and nod. Me, I just took a chance on the product and am happy with the results.
Reusable Pads
Ok, if I love the DivaCup so much, why bother with pads? Two reasons, one, when learning to use the cup, you will leak. You want the backup. Two, me personally, sometimes I feel too sensitive to wear a cup. I felt the same way about tampons back when I wore them.
Hoookay. What kind of nutcase wears reusable pads. That. Is. Gross. We live in a day and age where you can buy these cool super-absorbent pads that you can THROW AWAY and never have to deal with the godforsaken evil.
I admit, my primary motivation for trying reusable pads was money. (Again, I've read about the bleached cotton causing cramps, but again, can't find any ACTUAL evidence.) In my head, I wanted to start using cloth diapers when I decided to have a kid, so this was prepping for that. Blood isn't nastier than baby poop by any means. (I speak from experience now!) If it doesn't work, meh, I'll have tried something new.
I did some looking online, drew up a pattern, and cobbled together a design I felt was comfortable and would fit my shape. Custom fit! Can't get those with Kotex! I will go over all that nonsense in more detail later; I've got a how-to comin' up... :)
Pad benefits came flying through. No, they don't leak. (And at the risk of being indelicate, I do not have light, dainty periods.) You can adjust how absorbent they are. They are SOFT and comfortable. I admit, in the middle of the Texas summer they can feel a bit cumbersome; but what pad doesn't?
Survivalist benefits?
• one-time buy/CAN be made from old shirts if necessary
• gets softer and more absorbent over time
• relatively small footprint
• can be washed with other clothes
• absorbancy easily adjusted
• can make in adorable patterns!
Ok, ok, that last one isn't a survivalist benefit. But it is fun going to the fabric store and picking out something cute and on sale.
I could probably find more benefits/detriments, but ultimately these are the highlights. I've been using a combo of each system for several years now, and I can honestly say I will never go back to buying store-bought pads and/or tampons. I borrowed a tampon when I was caught off-guard one time, and it was one of the most uncomfortable things! Personal preferences aside, I KNOW I've saved a boatload of cash. (I will do a cost analysis of pads when I do that how-to.)
In any event, I hope that this has at least been mildly enlightening, if at least slightly more credible coming from a suburban housewife rather than Stardance Ravenheart, who writes uncomfortable blogs about how the industrial complex is plotting to destroy her personally for selling moon pads on Etsy.
So in my neck of the Internet, people are raving about using a baking soda mixture instead of shampoo. They loving refer to it as "No Poo", which I refuse to do because it sounds like a constipated toddler.
People are always talking about how regular shampoo is FULL OF CHEMICALS. I have to say, this is probably one of the most irritating statements I can hear.
chem·i·cal
[kem-i-kuh l]
noun
1. a substance produced by or used in a chemical process.
2. chemicals, Slang. narcotic or mind-altering drugs or substances.
adjective
3. of, used in, produced by, or concerned with chemistry or chemicals: a chemical formula; chemical agents.
4. used in chemical warfare: chemical weapons.
Welp, that's a pretty wide range of definition. We could probably throw baking soda under that bus. I realize most people are thinking of the big scary names they can't pronounce as "chemicals." Hell, "sodium hydrogen carbonate" sounds pretty scary, but it's really Grandma's friendly baking soda. It's made me want to explore what "chemicals" people are actually scared of, and how (to the best of our knowledge) they actually affect humans.
So other than making cookies delicious, what is baking soda? It comes from the mineral nahcolite, it's a type of naturally occurring salt. Bear with me, I somehow made it out of high school without taking chemistry. (Big mistake! I wish I had!) So yeah, it's natural, but so is uranium. Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's safe. However, we'll take a big leap here and assume it's safe because we can safely consume it on a daily basis, and it's often recommended as a remedy for upset tummies. (Yes, that's a pretty loosey-goosey way to assume something is safe, but this post is supposed to be about non-shampoo!)
In any event, that's not what this post is about, it's about how I'm a cheapskate.
My naturally occurring source for baking soda is the Wal-Mart a few blocks away. I picked up a pound of baking soda for 59¢. (I intend on making a Costco run to see if I can get it cheaper there, as it's used for multiple things in this house.) Assumption time!
Assume:
1 lb baking soda is 59¢ (±30 tbsp/box)
ratio for baking soda "shampoo" is 1 tbsp/1 cup water
I have long, thick, wavy hair
Then:
I will use 1 cup of mixture per shower (how much it takes to wet my scalp)
I will get about 30 washes per pound of baking soda
Cost is roughly two pennies per wash
Woo! Two pennies a wash! That's hard to beat...how does it stack up to an average bottle of shampoo? I've been buying the 40 oz pump bottle of Dove Shampoo at Costco for about $7, if I can recall correctly. Each pump yields about a 1/4 ounce, I usually use 2 pumps to get my hair nice and lathery.
Dove shampoo = 40 oz
Each use ± 1/2 oz
40 washes per bottle
±17¢/wash
So that's 16¢ of savings! Makes my miserly heart happy. For fun, how does this add up over time?
Assume:
I wash my hair every day (which I don't, but most folks do).
I'm the only one using the shampoo (my husband uses it too).
I will be able to wash my hair for 40 days for $7 with Dove.
I will be able to wash my hair for 30 days for 59¢ with baking soda.
Then:
It will cost me ±$63 in shampoo for a year with Dove.
It will cost me ±$17 in shampoo for a year with baking soda.
Difference of $46!
That's nothing to sneeze at! Now realize sometimes you use more, sometimes you use less, and prices are different everywhere. So my horrible math is probably riddled with errors (it wasn't until college that I realized math was really important to living my life the way I wanted).
For super fun...
$63 a year on Dove shampoo • 10 years =$630 on shampoo alone
You could buy a new washing machine or TV that would last 10 years for $630! Yikes! (Don't even get me started on investments!!!)
Cost-wise, this looks pretty great, assuming my calculations aren't all wonky. Baking soda is a product that's easy to get, stores for years, and is safe to consume/use on the body.
UPDATE: I got a big bag from Costco:
30 washes per pound of baking soda
453 tablespoons for 13.5lbs
Cost is roughly a penny per wash
I have just purchased about a year and 3 month's supply of "shampoo" for about six bucks and a quarter. You end up saving about 2 bucks buying the jumbo Costco bag as opposed to buying 13 boxes at Wally World.
BUT HOW WELL DOES IT WORK? I'll cover that in my next post about baking soda shampoo.
How cool is that? 4oz jars for canning...perfect for starting a stock of baby food for when the lil' critter starts to consume actual food! (Not to mention with that site-to-store I can order up a bunch and go pick them up, sans shipping. Yessss.)
I've started getting into canning recently, and baby foods seem to be a perfect fit. Freezer space is at a premium for us right now, and this is a fantastic solution. Obviously I'd have to get a pressure canner if I want to do baby meats, but that may be a journey worth embarking upon...
So I'm cheap. My jeans are still MOSTLY good, so why let holes slow them up? I hacked up a pair of too-far-gone pants and got started patching these up. After the glue sets, I'll put stitching around the patches.
